Stoughton, McEwen wave goodbye

It's Howard vs. Epping in World Cup final today

TOday's final at the GP Car & Home World Cup curling bonspiel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., will be a family affair.

Glenn Howard of Coldwater, Ont., earned a spot in the final of the first men's Capital One Grand Slam event of the season with a 5-2 semifinal victory over Sweden's Niklas Edin.

CNS TIMES COLONIST

John Epping

CP

Glenn Howard

CP

Jonathan Hayward / the canadian press archives
After going 5-0 in pool play Winnipeg�s Jeff Stoughton was upset in the quarters by Sweden�s Niklas Edin.

Providing the opposition will be Toronto's John Epping, whose second just happens to be Scott Howard, Glenn Howard's son. Epping, who earlier lost 7-3 to the elder Howard in preliminary-round action, stunned Edmonton's Kevin Martin 4-3 in Saturday night's other semifinal.

Howard, a three-time world champion, never trailed against Edin, stealing a deuce on the opening end, adding a single on the third and then stealing on each of the fifth and sixth ends.

The quartet shot a scintillating 94 per cent after earlier doubling defending champion Mike McEwen of Winnipeg 4-2 in the quarter-finals.

Epping started his day Saturday with a 6-5 extra-end tiebreaker victory over Greg Balsdon of Kingston, Ont., followed by a 7-4 quarter-final win over Brad Gushue of St. John's, N.L.

Epping's second- and fifth-end deuces provided all the points he would need against the Edmonton skip. Martin, a 17-time Grand Slam victor, curled an uncharacteristically low 69 per cent, while Epping was red-hot at 97 per cent.

Epping and Howard both ride four-game winning streaks into the final. One of those streaks is about to come to a crashing end.

Edin had played giant-killer in the quarter-final, knocking off Jeff Stoughton's unbeaten Winnipeg rink 5-3, wrapping things up with a deuce on the seventh end. Edin outshot the two-time world champion 87 to 60 per cent.

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